Banning LGBT+ people from attending pride is the opposite of impartiality. It would be like banning religious presenters from attending religious services. That some people question the validity of our place in society cannot be justifiably leveraged to force queer presenters to chose between taking their place in their community and their job.
Police officers have marched in Pride, home office official have marched in Pride, lawyers have marched in Pride (all of whom have obligations to be impartial in their jobs), whereas BBC employees cannot even attend with their partners. This policy is cruel, needless and emblematic of how bad things have been for queer people in the U.K. the last few years.
This is too far.
I have sympathy for the BBC is trying to make sure their news staff don’t develop too much of a following outside of their job. I think it’s probably a mistake to have news readers do HIGNFY and have Twitter accounts. But I can’t see the harm in them attending Pride as themselves in a personal capacity. As /u/Blue_Winged_Yoshi points out you wouldn’t ban a Christain from attending church.
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Well, they are *supposed* to be politically neutral, although yes I think that pretense was dropped a while ago. Pride is the state religion now so I suppose there’s no reason to prevent anyone from going to pride “protests”
Can’t believe I as taxpayer are being forced to fund the BBC despite them being openly against my existence. Extremely unethical. BBC should be disbanded.
Seeing the headline I thought it sounds really bad but I’m not sure after reading the story.
>Staff in news and factual journalism need to consider whether or not the particular Pride parade or march they would like to attend presents, or is likely to present, an overt protest or campaigning stance.
I agree in principle that staff at the BBC should maintain a public appearance of neutrality. It’s actually a very important thing.
But I’m unsure what pride is anymore.
Other people are comparing it to religious events but I think that’s a strange comparison that doesn’t fit (to me atleast).
I think it’s either a protest (as it originally was) or it’s a sort of cultural festival.
If you’re being cautious and trying to avoid any criticism of bias then it probably is a good idea to avoid an event that atleast in the past was a political protest.
Obviously on an individual basis there’s a wide gap between attending pride & getting a microphone & stating something about current politics. I’d probably just attend but keep quiet.
They’re not stopping staff from going to Pride events, they’re preventing them from going to protests
“pride protests”
Hmm, it’s been decades since I was in London at the same time as pride, but I’ve always thought of it as a celebration not a protest.
Which party has the balls to close the BBC licence fee?
By the same logic, “staff in news and factual journalism” should not be allowed to attend religious services, religious holiday celebrations, coronations, marriages, or other royal celebrations, etc.
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This isn’t even the first time that the BBC have announced this sort of thing. Iirc they did the same thing in 2018.
As a Republican I sure do hope the BBC will apply the same standards to Royalist events.
When’s that famous “balance” and “impartiality” going to kick in about that?
Having read the article, it seems to me that the advice comes off more as a rule than advice and I can see why people are angered.
Pride to me has always been a protest of love and making sure the world know you’re there, you exist in the same space and have the right, despite what others may say.
That article to me raises some questions about what others feel is the boundary of impartiality.
There is a giant billboard in Manchester which reads “Pride is a Protest” (ironically it then has a load of conglomerate corporations listed on it as sponsors).
You can’t have it both ways. Is pride a protest or is the BBC impartial?
I think this is fair so long as it is strictly limited to staff who are the face and voice of BBC news. Outside of that other staff should be free to do as they wish.
If gay people having rights is “political” then so is remembrance Day. Can we start banning BBC presenters from wearing one
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Banning LGBT+ people from attending pride is the opposite of impartiality. It would be like banning religious presenters from attending religious services. That some people question the validity of our place in society cannot be justifiably leveraged to force queer presenters to chose between taking their place in their community and their job.
Police officers have marched in Pride, home office official have marched in Pride, lawyers have marched in Pride (all of whom have obligations to be impartial in their jobs), whereas BBC employees cannot even attend with their partners. This policy is cruel, needless and emblematic of how bad things have been for queer people in the U.K. the last few years.
This is too far.
I have sympathy for the BBC is trying to make sure their news staff don’t develop too much of a following outside of their job. I think it’s probably a mistake to have news readers do HIGNFY and have Twitter accounts. But I can’t see the harm in them attending Pride as themselves in a personal capacity. As /u/Blue_Winged_Yoshi points out you wouldn’t ban a Christain from attending church.
[removed]
Well, they are *supposed* to be politically neutral, although yes I think that pretense was dropped a while ago. Pride is the state religion now so I suppose there’s no reason to prevent anyone from going to pride “protests”
Can’t believe I as taxpayer are being forced to fund the BBC despite them being openly against my existence. Extremely unethical. BBC should be disbanded.
Seeing the headline I thought it sounds really bad but I’m not sure after reading the story.
>Staff in news and factual journalism need to consider whether or not the particular Pride parade or march they would like to attend presents, or is likely to present, an overt protest or campaigning stance.
I agree in principle that staff at the BBC should maintain a public appearance of neutrality. It’s actually a very important thing.
But I’m unsure what pride is anymore.
Other people are comparing it to religious events but I think that’s a strange comparison that doesn’t fit (to me atleast).
I think it’s either a protest (as it originally was) or it’s a sort of cultural festival.
If you’re being cautious and trying to avoid any criticism of bias then it probably is a good idea to avoid an event that atleast in the past was a political protest.
Obviously on an individual basis there’s a wide gap between attending pride & getting a microphone & stating something about current politics. I’d probably just attend but keep quiet.
They’re not stopping staff from going to Pride events, they’re preventing them from going to protests
“pride protests”
Hmm, it’s been decades since I was in London at the same time as pride, but I’ve always thought of it as a celebration not a protest.
Which party has the balls to close the BBC licence fee?
By the same logic, “staff in news and factual journalism” should not be allowed to attend religious services, religious holiday celebrations, coronations, marriages, or other royal celebrations, etc.
[deleted]
This isn’t even the first time that the BBC have announced this sort of thing. Iirc they did the same thing in 2018.
As a Republican I sure do hope the BBC will apply the same standards to Royalist events.
When’s that famous “balance” and “impartiality” going to kick in about that?
Having read the article, it seems to me that the advice comes off more as a rule than advice and I can see why people are angered.
Pride to me has always been a protest of love and making sure the world know you’re there, you exist in the same space and have the right, despite what others may say.
That article to me raises some questions about what others feel is the boundary of impartiality.
There is a giant billboard in Manchester which reads “Pride is a Protest” (ironically it then has a load of conglomerate corporations listed on it as sponsors).
You can’t have it both ways. Is pride a protest or is the BBC impartial?
I think this is fair so long as it is strictly limited to staff who are the face and voice of BBC news. Outside of that other staff should be free to do as they wish.
If gay people having rights is “political” then so is remembrance Day. Can we start banning BBC presenters from wearing one